Let's Tweet!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Gracie can't figure out the whole rhyming-words thing to save her life.

"Mom. Listen to this. Sun, moon, stars and planets all RHYME!" she excitedly shouted last night during dinner.

Um. No, Gracie, they don't.

Once upon a time, I used to look at baby Gracie and think, I am totally going to home school her. Now, three years later, absolutely no way. I just don't have the patience. Granted, we do 'school work' now - mainly alphabet and counting work book pages. Gracie loves those... but when it comes to certain things, I stress out way too easily.

Rhyming is one of those things that stresses me out. Hmm... that is a weird thing to say, huh? But its true. Gracie loves to rhyme. Unfortunately, she has absolutely no idea what to do, despite listening to rhyming poetry every day and despite spending literally hours working on simple rhymes with me. I just don't get it.

But at least I do get to have a good laugh when we have conversations like this:

Me: What is a word that rhymes with 'mouse?'

Gracie [excitedly]: BROUSE!

Me: Okay. Right. But what is a real word that rhymes with 'mouse?'

Gracie: Ummmm... I don't know. Can you give me a clue?

Me [thinking]: Here's a clue... it can be any word that rhymes with MOUSE!

Me [out loud]: What do we live in?

Gracie [looking around the room, her eyes wide]: AMERICA!

Ha!

It does make me sad though, that she is so darned enthusiastic about everything, and I just get impatient and stressed. I was in school to be a teacher, back in the day. I figured teaching my four year old simple things, such as rhyming 'mouse' with 'house,' would be a piece of cake... its not.

So, besides the obvious of shoving her in preschool and letting someone else do the hard rhyming work... what do you mamas suggest? Any great learning tools work for you? I'm all ears!

Wow, you are brave even to consider home schooling! I might have thought about it for 5 minutes and then thought...nah. Amelia will run for the hills if she senses any formal "teaching" coming from me. We have to make it a game or she bails on me. I find putting music to something always helps. Maybe stick to talking about some of her favorite songs that rhyme. For example (because Amelia is listening to this right now) "sing a song...sing along"...then say "see how along and song rhyme?" and ask her for more places in the song that rhyme.

And then...there is this possibility...sometimes when Amelia doesn't want to play along with the "learning game" she will purposely give me the wrong answer. There's always a chance she's just messing with you.

You are so brave talking about this! I've struggled with this for years with my son and I thought I was the worst mom in the world because I couldn't get on his level and teach...when he was in 1st grade he brought home his very first list of spelling words. I worked with him for days, having him write the word, tell me the word, repeat after me how to spell the word, nothing worked. I was soooooooo frustrated. My husband saw it and sat down with him and started drawing very simple pictures that went with the words...one of the words was pit...he drew a stick man in a hole and *bam* lights went off and Tyler could spell pit...I realized years later that anytime I showed signs of frustration while working him, he'd pick up on it and mimic it...things that are so simple to me are not to him and its sooooo hard to work with him...his teacher says Tyler is one of his best students and grasps things quickly...must be me...

If something he has to learn is put to music or sang to him, he grabs it quickly...if its a visual game, he grabs it quickly...if its just words, he's gone...maybe your daughter needs pictures of the words that rhyme for them to make sense in her mind

My children are 22 & 16 now..my advice is sometimes it is easier for someone else to teach them. For example: my son is learning to drive. I am sure he does much better with the instructor than his own loving parents and amazingly I am o.k. with it;) You cannot teach them everything, but the things you do teach them are the MOST important!!(~~)Julie

Go and catch a falling star,Get with child a mandrake root,Tell me where all past years are,Or who cleft the devil's foot,Teach me to hear mermaids singing,Or to keep off envy's stinging,And findWhat windServes to advance an honest mind.